Epidemic
by vampymistress
Summary: AU Supernatural!Faberry. What happens when a zombie apocalypse occurs, and the students of McKinley High have no choice but to stick together?
1. In the End

**A/N: The characters are slightly AU, seeing as how this story was originally intended to be an original work of fiction. No spoilers. Unlike most of my Faberry-writing peers, this story will not immediately jump into Faberry. The progress of their relationship will take some time, as will the smut. If you were anticipating constant, ongoing loving, I am afraid you will find this story lacking in that department. However, I do encourage you to read on if you appreciate my writing style. Reviews are always welcome.**

**Disclaimer: No. Just no. I do no, have not, and will not ever own the characters taken from the Fox series. I do, however, own the few O/Cs I have put in.**

**Chapter 1: Zombie Apocalypse.  
**

* * *

The outbreak happened while we were in school. We were told to stay in whatever building we were in and to not go outside. The halls of McKinley quieted to mere eerie hums omitted by the running air conditioners. A few minutes to when school was normally released, the Figgins' voice came on over the intercom, and he was obviously trying to keep calm. "Students," he began, taking a slow, deep breath to get his bearings. "It has come to our attention that a scientist at a lab in downtown Ohio has released a virus into the air that...reanimates the dead. This virus spread as far as Australia and England in one hour. Even if there were a way to stop it, that virus has spread too far too quickly. I am afraid this school will have to be on lock-down for...quite some time. Stay in your building and refrain from breathing in the outside air or going out for extended periods of time."

With a click that signified that the end of his message, we began to look around at each other in confusion, his announcement not making sense in our minds. What did this mean? We all sat around looking at each other until panicked screaming erupted in the class. Every horror movie including zombies that we had ever seen played out in our minds. We all began to panic. Mr. Schuester went to the front of the room and tried to grab our attention. "Guys, calm down. Don't panic." he told us, booming his voice across the classroom.

I looked around at the faces of my classmates, taking in the obvious shock and disbelief playing on their faces. No matter what happened, from here on out, I would never forget who I was with when the zombie outbreak occurred. 23 other students in addition to the rest of the school who was unfortunate enough to be stuck in this situation. "Congrats. We're living in a zombie apocalypse." Santana muttered sarcastically, obviously trying to make a joke out of the situation. I could tell by the look in her eyes as she adjusted her Cheerios! uniform that she wasn't feeling indifferent about the situation at all. Catching me looking at her, she raised her lips in a snarl, and I looked away.

"Okay, guys." Sam said from across the room, getting out of his seat. Our heads swiveled to him, wondering what he would have to say. "Schue's right. Remain calm. I think I know a way we can optimize our chances of survival." Looking at him a response immediately came flying out of my mouth. "Yes, let's all take advice from someone whose experience comes from video games and comic books. I'm sure there shan't be any fallacies in any logic uttered from his mouth." I found myself saying, soliciting laughter from a majority of the class. As I insulted her friend, a particular blonde looked over at me, her stare penetrating deep into my soul, as always. Nervously, my eyes averted from that area, and I wished that I had kept my outburst to myself. She was one of the last people I wanted to be stuck with while the world was ending. "Not cool, Rachel." Mercedes shouted at me from the side where Sam and Quinn were. I rolled my eyes and shrugged, totally uncomfortable with Quinn's attention on me. "Sorry. Those were my nerves speaking. Please, continue." I smiled sweetly and folded my hands together.

But the calm really only lasted the first half hour. When that elapsed, a few people from other classes tumbled in. Since it was past the usual time school let out, we all took out our phones and contacted our parents and friends. My dad was waiting for me at the park a block away from the school. Upon me telling him the news, he left to go find my Daddy. Sam's suggestion was that we group up and remain in those groups for some time. It was probably some tactic he learned from Call of Warfare, or whatever mindless video game he chooses to drone over. Whether we added people from other classes or not, no one could be kicked out of their groups. Names were drawn out of a hat, and lucky me, my group consisted of Santana, Quinn, and a girl named Melissa. Then, Kurt Tina, and Blaine n in along with a few others from their class. The three of them joined up with us, giving us the biggest group in the class at the moment.

"Okay. I think it's evident that we're going to need to establish a sort of hierarchy within our group." Melissa began, looking at us. "Who should be group leader?" she asked. We looked around at each other, mentally assessing one another's capabilities when someone called us to attention. "Melissa's group!" Sam called, effectively establishing hierarchy. We turned to face him. "We need two people from your group and each other group to head down to the cafeteria and steal food, bust the vending machines and get drinks and snacks. Who's up for it?" We all looked around at each other before Quinn and I stood up at the same time saying. "I'll go."


	2. Strength

**Chapter 2: Strength**

* * *

Before we were due to venture outside the safety of our building, I grab the backpacks of my group and start emptying them. Even though they look up at me in puzzlement, I don't falter. "I want to get as much as I can for us, correct?" I say, posing a question that isn't really a question. They nod, understanding my antics, once again viewing me as sane. I hand some of the bags to Quinn, hardly noticing her existence as anything other than another person on the work force.

The people venturing into the unknown from each group stand by the door of the classroom. Sam makes us wait until every group has "scavengers", to make things fair. There are six groups, the least with four people in them. There is only one scavenger from the three small groups and two from the bigger ones. We could only hope that no other class had thought of getting food. Things were going to be difficult enough with 7 others to compete with. I could only look at the girl who was supposed to be my _partner_in this apocalyptic Hunger Games-esque mission and think back to that first day it all went downhill.

Everyone undergoes moments in their daily lives where they feel as if someone is watching them. Hardly ever does it turn out that someone is actually there, and that your intuition is anything more than mere paranoia. However, it was evident from the beginning that what I noticed wasn't paranoia. The date runs back to the middle of the first quarter of Junior year; I was asleep in calculus, when suddenly, a cold shiver ran down my back and I _just knew_that someone was watching me. My head darted to the left, and I saw her. Across the room, she was looking directly at me, and not shamed enough into looking away when we met eyes. Since that day, her actions became more evident. Asking me to tutor her in math. Stretching - only, who stretches backwards so that they can grasp the leg of the person behind them? Watching me from her table during lunch. Asking if I was a lesbian. Watching me from across the room in English. Touching my arms and legs. Always watching me. And I had to trust her to have my back?

I so hope these "scavenger" positions weren't set in stone.

Once the 9 of us are outside the classroom, we march up to the double doors that lead us to the outside world. I carry a stapler in my hand, which I would use to beat down the vending machines. Leaning against the double doors, I look back at my comrades and take a deep breath, pull my shirt over my nose and tuck the ends into my pants. With that, I push the door open. The cold air hits us like a brick wall, which was highly unusual for November in Florida. While I run downstairs, the sound of the others running in other directions pound against the ground. I jump over the railing - something I've been waiting for the right time to do - and head to the first vending machine. "Stand back." I told Quinn. Not for her safety, but if she died from shattered glass right now, I'd be in trouble.

As she backs away from me a few paces, I protect my face with a backpack and threw my hand down against the glass. Shards flew everywhere, but I didn't bother looking for any pieces on my person - I was on a mission. Quinn comes forward and aids me in shoving as much food as possible into 6 of our 7 backpacks, but they filled up quickly. "Let's just leave the rest." she suggests, holding up the last one. "Fill this one with drinks." I nod in agreement and we run back inside, thankful that there happens to be a soda vending machine in our building.

Taking my weapon to the machine once again, we grab as much as we could and filled the last one. Clutching our backpacks, we run past open doors of classrooms and curious faces and back to our class, breathing heavily. "You guys made it!" Kurt grins, running to hug me and giving a hesitant hug to Quinn. I grin, dropping the bags in the middle of our little group formed circle. "Looks like I'm a breadwinner." Santana laughs and turns it into a snort, knowing what I was referencing. "Let's just hope it's each group for themselves." Melissa says, already dividing up the loot and making rations. With the other groups looking at us and obviously wondering if their "breadwinners" would return, it suddenly became real. This wasn't a dream that I would wake up from anytime soon. This was reality, and this was the world from now on.


	3. Hide Away

A/N: Totally forgot about this. Anyway, Homecoming is coming up soon. I'm a Senior, so I should go to all the "rhythmic rituals" - as my Film teacher calls is - right? Who wants to take me?

{Remember that this was an original work of fiction. I just replaced the names.}

Chapter 3: Hide Away

Hours passed. All the scavengers returned, though none were as established as ours. It was getting dark outside, but the lights remained on inside. Kids in the building roamed around seeing as how the doors had to be open due to the A/C conking out. Our group relocated to the area just by the staircase outside our classroom. Our food supply was in the middle of the little circle, but still in our backpacks. We didn't want to seem boastful. "Do you think we're going to die?" Kurt asked, hanging his head so that his light brown hair fell over her eyes. Everyone in the circle seemed unsure of the answer. "Maybe we'll live throughout this so-called apocalypse." Melissa suggested. "It's probably not as bad as we think it is." she shrugged. I nodded in agreement. It didn't seem as if this was the way that humanity was supposed to come to an end.

"Guys" Brittany - who got placed in a different group - came over to us and crouched down. "Guys, they're making weapons." she whispered. "They're taking apart the entire class and even trading weapons for food." Before she finished, I got up and ran back into our class. Sure enough, it was like a marketplace in there. Desks were being slammed into pieces, the whiteboards were being unhinged and the sharp edges were taken off. "They're not just preparing for the zombies." The voice I detested said. I didn't even flinch at the sound of Quinn's voice. Her appearances from nowhere had become usual by now. "They're definitely planning on using them on others who stand in their way of survival." That much was obvious to me. And in the eyes of our classmates, we were the biggest threat.

I cussed under my breath and went outside to Melissa. "Boss." I called. "We need to split, now. They're not exactly singing kumbyah in there." Blaine looked up at me through his dark bangs and said, "We can't exactly leave the building, and there's nowhere to hide." Then he shrugged as if he was indifferent to the fact that this was a life or death matter. "We might as well go outside." Santana said. "We can't stay in here forever, we only change if we die, and there's no way they can purify the atmosphere." Tina and I were nodding in agreement when Melissa looked up, and I turned to see Quinn with Brittany's group behind her. "We're making allies." Quinn told us, leaving no room for disagreement. "They've got weapons and we've got food. Let's go."

Needless to say, sneaking seven people out would be a hard task. But we were joined by the four in Brittany's group, bringing our total up to eleven. Melissa wasn't pleased, but it seemed like there was no choice. "Fine" she spat. She grabbed a backpack and started down the stairs and the rest of us followed suit. "Go out one at a time." she told me, the message relayed back down the line. She went out first through the door by the bottom of the stairs that lead to the construction of a new area for campus. I paced back and forth for a minute or two before exiting the same way. The maze of the construction area was right behind the door, full of pipes and wires. Where had Melissa gone? "Over here!" A voice called. I looked up to see her climbing sideways through the unfinished building. "Dear God." I muttered. Though it took nearly a half hour we all made it out to the middle of the area where there were no pipes or anything in the way.

Sugar, the last one out and from Brittany's group, carried a wad of blankets over with her. Before we could question it, she said, "Some kids left these over their projects. Trying to hide them or keep them warm, I'm not sure. But I took all I could find." The result was four pretty huge blankets. Melissa had us spread them on the dirt floor to see if we could all fit. We'd have to cuddle when it was time to sleep, but it worked. The eleven of us sat in a circle, listening to the havoc going on inside and passing around a bag of skittles. The ground was hard, filled with pebbles and rocks even after we tried to clear a space. While the lights from the school lit up the dark, it was getting cold. Melissa took notice and clapped her hands. "Alrighty. Who's capable of finding materials to build a fire?" Everyone looked at me, since I was so eager the last time the group needed something. I scoffed and shook my head. "I'm already the scavenger." Quinn nodded in agreement, locking down our positions as partners.

When no one came forward and the quiet following my answer grew tense and awkward, Kitty and Sam, the others from Brittany's group, volunteered. We bid them off, giving them three weapons: the edge of a board, a sharp edged ruler, and a part of a desk that resembled a stake. Sooner than we expected, Kitty and Sam returned, panting and collapsing to the ground. "Are you guys okay?" Tina asked worriedly. "Sam's...leg.." Kitty gasped out. We looked to see Sam on the ground clutching his leg, blood seeping through his fingers. "What happened?" Kurt asked, using the sharp edged board end to cut off a piece of his shirt and wrap it around Sam's wound. "We didn't see who it was, but someone tripped him while we were coming back and started trying to hack away at him." Kitty recalled. "I-I threw something at him and it hit his neck. We started to run, but I don't know if I killed him or not." Brittany leaned over to rub Kitty's arm helpfully, as she was totally messed up over her first kill. "You did what you had to." she said. Kitty nodded as he helped Sam sit up. "At least you got the stuff for the fires, right?" he suggested. Kitty sighed and kicked some pieces of wood. "I guess he took one for the team."

A/N: I hate Kitty. Just saying. Marley's my favourite. Four for her.


	4. Riot

Chapter 4: Riot.

It took a while for our first zombie sighting to occur. It was six days after Kitty and Sam went to get the fire stuff. Now, jobs had been assigned. They became the official fire starters. Sugar, Santana and Blaine had to dig designated potty places and built walls up making a shower area. Blaine had sneaked back inside the school to steal rolls of tissue and a soap dispenser. Sugar had found a hose and tied it along a pipe so that water ran down. Brittany, Tina, and Kurt were the ones who didn't get any sleep because they had to take shifts at night on guard. Brittany - who had the last shift - would wake me and Quinn up and we'd go scavenging. Only when our jobs were done right were we allowed to eat. Even though our food supply was nowhere near running low, everyone had to admit that snacks and soda were no way to be nourished. Food shortage on the inside, however, was what caused us to see our first zombie.

It was a regular afternoon at first. We sat around, totally medival, relaxing or trying to play some sort of game in the dirt. Kitty, Sam, Quinn and I, the only ones who ventured outside the safety of our makeshift home were also the only ones with cuts and scrapes. They had become so common that Kurt had a half job as a doctor. Thusly, he was treating a gash on Kitty's arm when Kitty pointed out a confrontational scene occurring in the open hallway in the building adjacent to our location. Two girls speed-walking down the hallway with backpacks in their hands when lager kids came out of nowhere and surrounded them. The first of the larger kids went up to the redhead girl and started saying something that made her cringe and the others laugh. The other girl, a brunette, pushed him away, but he didn't move at all. He wasn't so pleased by her actions, as he shoved her against the wall. Her backpack fell, and by the way she paled while everyone else looked down we could tell that something rolled out of it. The first boy made the first move again, shoving her shoulder harder into the wall. He started yelling, and then he raised his hand to hit her across the face. The redhead shrieked, and another boy grabbed her backpack to check it. He pulled out a few oranges, holding them accusingly against her face. That was when all hell broke loose. The two boys started hitting the girls, then the others joined in as well. We could hear their screams and pleading as the boys beat them down. I couldn't watch, so I turned my head and cringed into someone's shoulder.

A minute later, I heard a thud hit the ground, sounding very close to us. The others gasped, so I turned to see the body of the brunette flying over the railing to land close to her redhead friend who had landed face down in the dirt. Holy crap! I thought. The boys had thrown them over the railing and to the ground! Once the group was out of sight, we ran over to the two girls to check if they were - by any miracle - still alive. Kurt started checking their pulses. "This one's alive." he said, lifting up the brunette. Tina and Kitty helped carry her back to camp as Kurt started to check the redhead, who was trying to get up, groaning in pain. "Ssh, we're going to help-" Kurt froze, his face paling. "What is it?" I asked, crouching down. The redhead groaned again, but as Tina and Sugar started to help her up, Kurt screamed, "N-no! She has no pulse! H-her neck is broken! She's dead!" It wasn't until the girl started grabbing for Tina that we realized what was going on. The girls ran screaming back to our campground while Sam yelled "Finally!" and ran towards the girl with two sharp board edges. When he reached her, he plunged the first one into her heart, and the second into her chest. Despite the fact that she would've eaten us if she had the chance, i felt a small pang in my own heart when she dropped down, truly dead.

A screamed erupted from behind us, and we all turned to see the other girl screaming, convulsing on the ground. I ran over to her and covered her mouth, holding her tightly. "Oi, shut up, will you? Do you want them to find our hiding spot?" Then I remembered that she was in pain - her nose was broken, her leg was twisted, and blood was coming from her face - and that she also had just saw Sam kill her friend. "Oh, i'm sorry." I told her, trying to hold her as she flailed her arms and legs, which must have pained her to do. "Look, we didn't kill your friend. Those group of assholes over there did that. She was a zombie, honey. She was going to eat us." The girl stopped moving and burst in to tears, sobbing against my shoulder. Seeing her calming down, Kurt came over and tried to clean her up a bit. He tipped a bottle of water over one of his "healing rags" - pieces of our clothes ripped off - and started to dab at the girl's bloody nose. "Someone get her food." he told us. Brittany reached inside one of the backpacks and pulled out a box of Nerds and a bottle of Coke. "Hold up." Melissa said, grabbing the stuff. "We're going to give her all the Coke? That will seriously push us off-" Quinn shut Melissa up by grabbing the Nerds and Coke, handing them to Kurt. "Shut up, Melissa. There's no need for your capitalist bullshit here. She needs it more than we do." After a bout of awkward silence due to the fact that this was the first time any of us heard Quinn curse, Melissa crossed her arms and went quiet. "What's your name, anyway?" I said to the girl. Thirstily gulping down the Coke Kurr was feeding her, the girl pulled away to swallow and croak out, "Marley. My name is Marley."


	5. Careful

Chapter 5: Careful.

Marley couldn't walk very far on her own, as a 20 ft. drop can do to a body. She mostly stayed in her own corner while Kurt did the best he could with soap, cloth, and water. "We can't keep tearing the clothes on our body." I told him. Pretty soon, there wouldn't be much left to cover up with. He looked up at me and sighed. "Yeah. And I can't keep washing the same rags out. Totally unsanitary." He bit his lip and then called for Melissa, who was debating the importance of traps with Blaine and Santana. She came over with an eyebrow already raised.

"Yeah?"

Kurt got to his feet and wiped his hands on his pants. "Do you think it's cool if the scavengers go to the lot a few blocks down and get some material or something from the stores over there?"

Wait, what?

"I already did my time today! We brought back mint leaves and bread! Send someone else!" I even crossed my arms for good measure. Melissa shrugged, oblivious to my reasons against quality time with my "partner". "Put it this way; come back successfully, and you'll get a larger dinner portion." Persuaded by the thought of a bigger meal - what? seven chips and half a bottle of soda was the best I'd get - Quinn and I were set to head out again. "Wait, Melissa." Sugar called, stepping forward.

"Do you remember what else is in that lot?" she asked. When it was apparent that she didn't, Sugar continued. "That Jax Cafe restaurant. And, you guys ready for this? There's a gun shop in the back right of the lot." Upon this revelation, everyone started talking, even Marley from the ground. Melissa put two fingers in her mouth and whistled, capturing our attention. "Alright. This is bigger than we thought. We should assume that Sugar isn't the only one who remembered. Therefore, our scavengers will be accompanied by myself, Santana and Kitty." No one contested her announcement. The five of us were equipped with two juice bottles, board edges, stakes, rocks, and we grabbed backpacks to fill up with our treasure. Sugar, Brittany, Sam, Tina, Blaine and Kurt were to hold down the fort 'til our return. "If none of us come back by tomorrow afternoon at the latest, you guys should assume the worst and probably find new shelter." Melissa told them. One that note, we left.

As Quinn and I were the ones who left daily, we were the leaders of this little troop. We dashed across the faculty parking lot and pressed against the far side so that if there was anyone in the cafeteria or office, we wouldn't be seen. Soon enough, we passed the part we usually turned to go look for food and went past the parking lot There was a fence we had to limb and once everyone touched the ground, we were on high alert. "Guns first." I ordered in a whisper. We made it past the first store easily, but encountered something. "Shit, man." Santana swore. "Did you hear that?" We didn't need to, because two zombies popped out of the store in front of us. Dear God, they were ugly looking things, with their skin peeling off their bodies. We wrinkled up our nose against the stench reeking from their bodies. I pulled out my stake and shoved it between the eyebrows of one of them while Quinn killed the other. I made a face at the dead zombie by my feet and walked over it, not wanting to retrieve my weapon.

The rest of the way to the gun shop was uneventful for which we were grateful. We broke into the store, surprised and grateful that no alarm went off. "Madre del Dios." I breathed, getting a few looks? What? I always switched to Spanish when English wasn't good enough. The shop was small, but there were plenty of guns, like that part in Kick-Ass when you see all the guns in Big Daddy's room. We started taking them down, from shotguns to AK-47s - my personal favorite. Kitty and Santana headed to the back to get ammo, tossing the racks to us. We took twelve guns rather than eleven, in case Marley managed to handle a gun soon.

"Um, we have a problem." Quinn said from the front of the store, looking outside through the shades. I looked out to see a group of about five large guys looking inside other vacated stores. They would definitely come into a gun store. "Damn. We've got a pack of career tributes." I told the others, alluding to a popular book we'd all read. these boys wouldn't hurt a group of girls, right?


	6. Femme Fatale

Chapter 6: Femme Fatale.

Quickly forming a plan, Quinn, Melissa, and I threw our backpacks to Santana and Kitty who hid under the back desk. The three of us ran our hands through our hair, trying to make it look wild and messy, and if we were taking cover here. "When I give the signal, get up and shoot, okay?" Melissa whispered as the three of us got to the ground and pretended we were asleep.

Soon enough, the group of boys reached our store and peered in. "Guns!" one exclaimed and then they all barged in, slamming the door against the wall. We pretended to wake up frightened, looking up at them whilst they looked down upon us. "Chicks, man." one of them smirked, slapping another on the back.

"Why, hello girls." the one in front said, smirking.

"Hi." we said back to him, waving our fingers lightly.

"Are you here to help us?" I asked, trying to appear all wide-eyed and innocent.

"We lost our group and we've been here for a bit." Melissa added. The boy walked over to Melissa and grabbed her by her hair. A flash of anger went over her eyes, quickly wiped away by faux fear.

"Well you three are joining our group."

Trying to appear afraid and confused, I got up and started backing away, right into another large boy who grabbed my arm.

"Let us go, guys. We all need to survive." Quinn said when another yanked her to her feet.

"We also need to repopulate!" The first boy shouted, soliciting a chorus of testosterone filled cheers from the others. They began to herd us towards the door and the guy on me got a bit fiesty as his hand started to travel south.

Just when I thought Melissa's plan was to get us raped by the boys, she yelled out, "Now!" The three of us dropped to the ground as shots rang out and blood exploded from various parts of the boys that were hit. We rolled to our feet and grabbed the guns Kitty and Santana held out to us. The boys cried out in pain but gasped when they saw us with the guns. I spotted the one who groped me writhing on the ground gripping his arm. "We are not your bitches." I told him before giving him a sickily sweet smile and shooting him right in between the legs.

"You girls are insane!" the first guy said trying to crawl away. Melissa pressed the gun against his forehead and laughed. "Don't mess with chicks, you dick." she told him as she pulled the trigger.

As the others saw their leader getting his brains blown out, they all ran for the door. To their dismay, Quinn and I blocked their exit while Melissa, Santana and Kitty crowded them from behind.

"Sorry boys." Melissa said, shrugging. "Maybe you should've thought twice before deciding that you could mess around with a group of girls." she nodded to Quinn and Kitty, raising her weapon. "We're in a shop full of guns, for fuck's sake." And with that, they killed the three remaining boys. Blood splattered everywhere and I made a face at the grossness of it all. "Yuck." I muttered, shooting the first one coming back to life.

"This is so gross!" Kitty said, retching. Santana laughed at our squeamish impulses, oblivious to the blood on her clothes. "Isn't there a shirt designing company here somewhere?" she asked. Melissa snapped her fingers. "Yeah! Oh!Tees. Think they have any shirts actually in there?"

Grabbing our backpacks and more ammunition, we shoved the smallest guns into our pockets and went out in search of new clothes.

QRQRQR

"You killed them all?" Marley asked in wonder. Our t-shirt mission had been a success and we brought back three for everyone, and two more for Kurt to cut up and use as "healing rags". Us five who returned had a story to tell, but we all wanted to shower and change first. After showers, the five of us changed into the new digs. Kurt was changing now, so I was taking care of Marley. "Yup." I nodded. "I pretended they were the group who...you know, and got my revenge." Honestly, I felt no guilt over killing the boys. They would've done unspeakable horrors to us and maybe even killed us afterwards. Besides, we'd have to kill more people later on, so why not get the practice?

"You know..." Marley began, looking up at me. "There are a few abandoned houses over by the field. I'm familiar with one of them. We could stay there instead of here." she suggested. It really wasn't a bad idea at all. Tile or hardwood flooring rather than rocks and dirt, heat at night instead of body warmth? It sounded amazing. When Kurt came back and heard the idea, he liked it too. Now all we had to do was convince Melissa. She was talking to Blaine who was trying to show her how to tie a knot for a trap.

"Um, Melissa, hey." I said, tapping her shoulder.

She turned to face me and asked, "What do you want, Rachel?"

I cast my eyes down and began rubbing my arm. "Well, Marley told me that she had a house kind of past the backfield where the abandoned houses are. We should go there and like vacate it." she went quiet while she thought, gazing past me and probably wondering the best route there. And then she nodded

"Fine. Let's go."

A while later, we were making our big escape. Everyone but Marley had a gun, but Melissa had Marley's gun as well as her own. We stuffed all the food and drinks into five backpacks. The blankets and clothes went into the last two. Before we left, we took down the hose, knocked down the shower walls, threw the soap out and left the DPPs exposed. Whoever went there after us would have to do everything themselves. As we walked, we had a little formation.

Marley, Kurt and I were in the middle; Kurt and I were holding Marley up. On one side of us, facing the east was Santana and Blaine. Facing the west were Quinn and Kitty, neither of whom I trusted with guns. Not to mention the fact that every now and then I felt something touching my ass, but every time I looked back, Quinn seemed perfectly innocent. Which in itself was suspicious. Behind us, facing the way we'd come were Tina and Sugar. And in front were Brittany, Sam and Melissa. The journey was smooth until we hit the field leading to the houses. "Uh-oh" Tina muttered. "Just shoot it." Melissa said, not bothering to even turn around. I did, however, and saw a group from our class running towards us, waving around old weapons and slingshots. (The rocks actually made it pretty far.) "Melissa, it's Talia, Brian, Amanda-" I tried to tell her. She cut me off by saying "I do not care. Just. Shoot." Upon hearing this command, Sugar and Tina both raised their guns and began to shoot at them. They didn't get any with a deadly hit, so I dumped my side of Marley on Kurt, broke formation, and drew out my new friend.

"Finally." Brittany sighed, collapsing against the back door. After we had cut through the fence that leads to the houses and waded through the lake in front of it, we went around the house in case anyone could see us. That way, they'd think we were heading to the highway. "Uh, Marley?" Santana asked as she gawked through the window. "Was this the way you left the house?" Kurt and I moved to the window so Marley could peer in, feeling devastated when she said, "No, things are different!" Just about then we heard steps pound down the stairs and we dropped down to the grass- not an easy feat when you're holding someone. "There's a guy in there." Marley whispered to the others. Santana crawled over to the door and told us, "I'll handle him. You guys should really take a shower." Strapping her shotgun to her back with a smirk, she kicked open the door and shut it behind her. We heard a small fight and yelling, then some protesting, then - minutes later - feet heading up the stairs. I looked through the window to see Santana mouthing at us, "Hurry up." I face-palmed as Kitty asked, "What is she doing?" Melissa answered her, saying, "Don't question it."

Once inside, we immediately found the bathroom on the first floor equipped with both shower and bath. "Thank God." Tina sighed. Most of us showered, but Marley took a bath - by herself, no worries. We only had to help her in and out of the tub, but she had on a robe. We sank into the couches when we were all done, trying to block out the sounds coming through the thin walls. Tina wandered into the kitchen, searching the cupboards for actual food while Blaine grabbed board games from the closet. "Monopoly- score!" he squealed, dropping to the living room floor. Quinn and Sam came inside carrying a bunch of tall purple flowers and started placing them around the rooms. I was laughing at Brittany having to go to jail and enjoying the smell of macaroni and cheese that Tina was making when footsteps pounded on the stairs again. Unanimously, we all turned to look.

Dressed in only boxers and a t-shirt with his mouth duct-taped, hands tied behind his back, and a gun at the back of his head was the guy we had seen earlier. Holding the gun, of course, was Santana, hair bedraggled and clothes askew, grinning like a mania. "San!" Kitty exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "What did you do?" Blaine scoffed, rolling the dice as if nothing was going on that interested him. "We heard what she did, blondie." Santana chuckled, not in the least bit embarrassed, while the guy blushed. "Our friend Finn is going to let us use the house. Isn't that right?" she grinned, nudging him with her gun. He nodded rapidly, eyes widening in fear. Santana marched him over to a chair and made him sit there. "Santana." I sighed. "Did you have to do that to the poor kid?" She gave me a look as she passed me that got me to shut up.

We ate the macaroni Tina made paired up with some fruits. Finn merely sat in the chair half-naked all night. Each time my head inclined in his direction, either Santana or Melissa would bark at me to turn away. Due to lack of entertainment in such close quarters, tension began to build up. There was no TV, so we either had to play a board game or gawk at each other. Suddenly, Melissa slammed down a book and got to her feet, quieting everyone. "Okay. Here's what we're going to do; every two days we're gonna switch houses. Some of our jobs will be a little different. Quinn and Rachel-" Rachel and Quinn, I thought. "You two will still look for edible things outside of here. You might also want to look for healing plants that Kurt can use." As Melissa went on, I completely tuned her out. Great. Yet another task with her. Ever since they came inside with those flowers, Sam and Quinn sat directly across from me. It made me uncomfortable, the way Quinn watched me openly and shamelessly.

In one of the closets, we found a bandage wrap roll and some painkillers next to a first aid kit. Kurt wrapped up our cuts, pacified that the roll did better than ripped up pieces of clothing. As I was considering playing Scrabble, Melissa called me over to her. "Sup boss?" I asked, going over. "Okay. Santana's going to hotwire you guys a car, alright?" Melissa said, grinning. I raised an eyebrow. "Santana knows how-" Melissa quieted me and nodded. "Go find Quinn and find out if she can drive." Find? Was she lost? Why did we want to find her? Despite my thoughts, Melissa gave me a look that made me take off.

Once outside, my half-hearted search for the demon began. My feet carried me around the house twice. My eyes caught sight of a garden patch off to the right and started to go down the path. The grasses and flowers got taller, but the house was still in sight and my gun was tied to my belt loops with a rope, so I felt safe. A bunch of tall purple flowers akin to the ones Quinn and Sam had brought in caught my attention. I had started to make my way towards them when something tripped me up, causing me to fall flat on my face. "What the f-" almost flew out of my mouth when I heard a giggle. I saw up and saw Quinn sitting in the grass, legs crossed in a meditative position. "Seems like you fell for me." she giggled. I rolled my eyes, trying to brush the dirt off of my face.

"Wanna meditate?" she asked, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. When I didn't answer, she laughed, moving forward so that our legs were touching and asked, "Are you scared?" Resisting the urge to move away from her, I rolled my eyes. "You've seen me kill a guy without hesitating. You don't scare me." My heart did, however, reach with nervousness as she leaned forward to grab my shoulders and smile. "Then calm down. Your heart's beating as fast as a hummingbird's wings." I shook her off of me reflexively, feeling guilty as hurt flashed across her face for a second. Sighing, I folded my legs in the same position that she was in, allowing our knees to touch. "Alright; let's meditate." The smile that beamed off of her face was so bright that it'd be impossible not to smile back. "Remember the first meditation you taught us?"

On the day I had suggested to teach Glee Club a meditation, Quinn, Mr. Schue and I were the only ones left. To stop an awkward silence, my meditation was suggested. That was the day Quinn told me she liked my voice and the week she'd brought me flowers.

"Well, yea, I remember it." I told her. "Good; let's do that one." Quinn said. The chakra aligning meditation took a while to perform. It involved visualizing rainbow bridges bursting from your chakras, feelings of warmth, rays of white light- "Is this like the gay mating circle or something?" a voice asked, disrupting me and imbalancing my chakras. My eyes opened to reveal no one other than Santana looking down at us with a smirk on her face. Getting to my feet, I rolled my eyes. "Do you have the car ready?" Santana grinned at my reaction and nodded her head. "What car?" Quinn asked, getting up. "Oh, Melissa wants all the lesbians to go search further for food, so I got you two a car." Santana said, laughing. I sighed, kicking some dirt pebbles around and wondering if taking a swing at her was worth getting my ass kicked. Santana led us back to the house where a black Chevy Camaro was parked. "Fuck yea!" I squealed, running to the car. This was my dream car, the one I'd've wanted when I got my liscence and the world hadn't ended. "I knew you'd like it." said Melissa, coming out of the house. "Now you two get your asses in the car. We put two guns in there; one for Quinn and a spare one for Rachel." Quinn climbed into the driver's seat and I went into the passengers seat. "Why does she get two guns?" Quinn asked Melissa, looking out the window. Melissa laughed. "She's a better shot."

Quinn began to drive away, and I reveled in the fact that I was finally inside a camaro. But my glory was pretty short lived- I couldn't exactly blog about this or anything. The car's gas tank was almost full, but we stopped anyway in order to search for a plastic gas tank to fill up. Siphoning gas from parked cars, we filled up the tank and got back in the car. Our hands had accidentally brushed a few times, reminding me of one of the times where she had put me in situations that forced us to touch. There was the time she did a split in front of me and got "stuck", and she called out to me to help her up. There was also the time after Halloween where she moved my hands aside and looked in my bag for candy. And who could forget the time she decided to use my arms as a wipe when she was painting, leaving me streaked with pink and green for the whole day?

"Where are we headed first?" I asked as we got off of the highway. If we're gonna rob a food place, there has to be meat. Repetitive snacks suck." The car slowed down as Quinn veered off the side of the road, not answering my question. Immediately wary, my hand grabbed the door handle and would've flew out of the car if she hadn't slammed on the lock. "You and I need to talk." she said, looking over at me. "No we do not." I scoffed, trying to find something to break the window with. Quinn grabbed my hands as they were searching, gripping them in her own tightly. "Listen to me!" she scolded, squeezing my hands. I stopped fighting, distracted by the urgency of her voice. "You must know what I'm going to say by now." she began, her dark eyes searching my own for some sort of sign. "I don't know why or how this came to be, but I'm attracted to you. You know that you feel-" I snatched my hands away and shook my head rapidly. "I don't feel anything for you. This isn't going to happen." I told her.

The atmosphere inside the car seemed to change. Total darkness seeped into Quinn's eyes, and I could imagine lightning bolts in those black orbs of death. Her openness and the emotions playing on her face trans-morphed into total anger. She seemed to be radiating fury from her body. I pressed myself against my door in an attempt to put as much distance between us a possible. "See what you've done?" she asked. "No I'm upset. You're going to have to pay for that. She leaned forward and snatched the gun from the loops on my pants. I looked in the backseat for the others, but they were nowhere in sight. "Whoa, dude!" I screamed, waving my hands. "This it not how you work out your problems!" Quinn chuckled, tossing the gun back and forth between her hands. "Oh, but it is. Everytime I see you, I'm reminded that I can't have you. So what other option is there than to not have to look at you?" What kind of fucked up logic was running through her mind? You can't kill someone just because they're not in lesbians with you!

"Okay, okay, maybe we can like, work something out." I suggested, trying to remain calm in the face of insanity. "There will be no negotiation." she said, wrapping her fingers around the trigger and pointed the barrel of the gun to my forehead. Was she really going to kill me in my dream car? There seemed to be only one way out of this. Years of drama and improv classes, don't fail me now. I thought. "Wait, please!" I begged, making my eyes water by thinking of Adele songs. "I lied! Oh, I lied! I-I didn't want to acknowledge my feelings, but they're there! And they're for you! Please, please don't kill me!" Her hands wavered, and the gun dropped from aiming at my forehead to my throat. Quinn looked me in the eyes and said, "I don't believe you." I tried to recall some moment in our history that could be altered to make my statement seem true. "Remember how you were there in trigonometry when I told Sugar that my girlfriend and I broke up? And the time you held on to me on the way to class? And all that eye contact from across our lunch tables-" she held up her hand and put down the fun. Well great! There'd be no death today!

"Do you believe me, now?" I asked, my voice quiet and hushed. Quinn considered it before clearing her throat and commanding, "Prove it." Both my eyebrows raises in confusion. A side of her mouth quirked up in a smirk as she waited for me to take action. Her hand twitched towards the gun a bit as if she wasn't even aware that she was doing it. It was enough to make me force a blush and say, "I wouldn't be able to do it right. I've never been kissed." she chuckled and leaned across the seats, pulling me forward by my shirt. With a mischievous grin, she whispered, "Well there's a first time for everything."


	7. Stowaway

Chapter 7: Stowaway

Two Months Later

Two months had passed since that fateful day. The way we worked as a group became routine. Our jobs stayed mosty the same. Marley, who had healed enough and only had a slight limp, began to teach us in hand-to-hand combat for occasions when guns wouldn't be enough. We asked what her qualifications were, but when she was able to knock Santana down in less than a minute, we never questioned her again. We'd been in plenty of fights seperately or in a group, but rarely ever had a group fight occured. It had only happened once, but they were so horribly lame that it was quite pathetic. As our food supply dwindled, tension began to flare. We had to go down to one meal a day, and while we searched further, we brought back less.

It was upon one of our returns from a search that Quinn spilled the beans about our "relationship". A week after we "agreed" to be together, she decided that we should have a date. Not in any position to deny her - arguments in a car never worked out for me - we went to a broken down chinese restaurant and feasted on the very same things we'd gathered that day. When we returned, Melissa almost immediately knew what we had done. When we handed her our backpack, she glared at us suspiciously for a while before blurting out, "You bitches. I can smell the mint on you. You took food without asking?" she'd said it loud enough for everyone to freeze and watch us getting chewed out.

"We had a good reason." Quinn told her, head tilted in confusion. 'Oh, no, don't say it.' I silently begged, trying to telepathically reach her.  
"What the hell would make this okay?" Melissa asked, shaking the bag in our faces. Quinn grabbed my hand and met the eyes of everyone in the room before dropping the bomb.

"It was our first date." After a moment of awkward silence during which I merely wanted to disappear, Santana and Brittany clung to each other and begand jumping around, congratulating Quinn on "finally working up the courage to pop the Berry". Melissa and Kitty gawked at us in shock, Blaine didn't quite seem to care, and Sam, Tina, Marley and Kurt shook their heads in disbelief.

Since then, I'd had a horrible time whenever Marley pit Santana and I against each other in combat. She would make a joke or give me a look, I'd blush and drop my guard. And then it was hell for me whenever I lost, even though I had my own personal cheerleader shouting words of encouragement at me. It only would embarass me more and give Santana more fuel. We had never done anything more than kiss, in case some of you were speculating. She had wanted to take it further, but that was one thing I was not going to allow. Perhaps she believed cheering me on would change that, but my mind was rooted.

One day, as Santana was about to slice my arm with a stake carved out of a tree, something off to the side caught her attention. With her distracted, I swept her legs from under her, pointing my stake over her chest. "Ha, I win!" I exclaimed victoriously.

"Bitch." Santana said, getting to her feet. Fearing for my life, I got behind Quinn for protection. Santana looked towards the cluster of trees and pulled out her shotgun from where it lay, aiming it at the forest. My own gun came out as we scanned the area. To my right, something stumbled out of the bush. We aimed our guns at him until we realised it was just a boy.  
"Uh, hi." The tanned boy said, surprised to be met with three girls holding guns at him.

"What do you want?" Santana asked, eyes narrowing, her gun never wavering from his head. "Did you think that you needed to try and talk to us because you thought we would save you?"

I nudged her, lowering my gun. "It's Puck, Santana." She smirked and raised an eyebrow, her gun still trained on him. Puck looked down, not sure what to do or say. With a sigh, I grabbed my gun and walked back inside telling Melissa, "Santana's being a bully."

A few minutes later, after Melissa had gone outside to talk to Santana and Puck, Quinn came in and sat next to me on the couch. "Let me guess." I began, closing the book I was reading. "We've got another mouth to feed?" She nodded in response, leaning her head against my shoulder with a sigh. Now we would have to take more precautions and search further for more food.

"That's insane." Brittany said, getting up from her card game with Finn on the floor. These months out here had made her toughen up quickly. We'd seen a more determined and tough side of her that none of us had ever expected to see. Of all of us, she has the most dramatic adjustment to the new world. "Melissa actually allowed one more person in our group?" she asked, coming to stand in front of us.

"Yes. Is there a problem?" the boss herself asked, walking through the doors with Santana and Puck.

"We don't have enough to feed another person." Brittany argued, placing her hands on her hips. "You're already pushing Quinn and Rachel too far!". 'Rachel and Quinn', I corrected in my mind.

"I am the leader of this group for a reason, Brittany." Melissa replied.

"You're the leader solely because Sam had addressed the group with the first person he saw! No one wanted you!" Brittany yelled, getting flushed. That was the one thing no one wanted to address, yet it was there in the backs of our minds; was Melissa who we really wanted in charge?

"I am what's best for the survival of this group." Melissa countered. "Thanks to me, you're still alive!"

"What do you do to keep us running? All you do is sit on your ass while we do our jobs. You don't deserve to be in charge." I noticed Brittany's hand twitch toward her gun, which meant Melissa must have, too. Panic played on the faces of the others, but Melissa didn't hesitate. She drew out her pistol and shot Brittany right in the stomach.

Brittany screamed out in pain as the bullet hit her, and people immediately jumped into action. She screamed profanities while Kurt led her to the couch and laid her back against it. She had to be held down by Blaine and Sugar while Kurt moved up her shirt and inspected the area, cleaning the blood up with masses of paper towels.

"Damn, your aim is fuckin' awesome!" Puck remarked to Melissa, patting her on the back. She shrugged him off and spun on her heel to storm out the door, Kitty and Santana following behind her to comfort her.  
Nursing a still screaming Brittany, Kurt held up his hand, his eyes not leaving her wound. "Get me painkillers." he ordered. Tina went into the pantry and grabbed one of the bottles there and tossed it to Kurt. He spilled three of them into his hand and held them to Brittany's bloody lips, who swallowed them dry.

Puck ran a hand down his mowhawk and awkwardly shuffled over to Brittany. "Uh, hi." He said warily Brittany growled at him, still unable to speak around her pain. Puck cleared his throat before beginning again. "I-I know that it's my fault she shot you. But I have something to make it up to you." He smiled hesitantly and turned to go back outside. Curiously, the others all pooled into the living room to get a better view. He came back in carrying a tattered backpack and pulled out a small grenade.  
He turned it around in his hand, admiring it for a bit before saying, "This is the perfect weapon. And in return for you guys taking me in, I'm giving it to you." He hesitated befote holding it out. Brittany carefully reached for it, grinning dopily.

"Where'd you get it?" Marley asked, admiring the thing lustfully. For the next hour or so, those two were inseperable, talking about weaponry. It was hard to follow their conversation unless you knew a lot more about Mikhail Kalashnikov and his like-minded peers than their names. While everyone did their own thing, the front doors burst open. Paolo and I were the first to draw our guns in a kill-first-ask-questions-later type of response, but we lowered them when we noticed that it was Melissa, Kitty and Santana, coughing and sweating.

"What's going on?" Marley asked warily, going over to them.  
"They're...everywhere." Melissa gasped. Before we could ask for clarification, Blaine - standing by the window - exclaimed, "Oh, shit!" capturing our attention. I ran to the window only to see a horde of bloody, mangled corpses making their way towards the house.

"There's an army out there!" I yelled. Sam pushed the window open and trained his gun. Blaine, Sugar, and I opened fire as well.

"They're on this side, too!" Tina called from the window across from us.

"You idiots brought back death?" Kurt shrieked, moving from his spot where he knelt by Brittany. "If you knew they were following you, why did you come back?" They began to yell while we tried to kill of the zombies on our side which was turning into a difficult task.

"Can you shut up and get your damn guns?" Sam growled out. They all immediately stopped arguing and grabbed their weapons, crowding against windows, trying to get as many headshots as possible.

Puck and Finn were the only ones without guns. Finn seemed okay with this, but Puck groaned out in indignation. "Uh, hello? Where's my gun? I gave you guys my grenade!" As his pleas fell on deaf ears, we kept taking turns at shooting up the zombies, but they were like a gross version of the Hydra: shoot one zombie, three more come to avenge him.

"We can't do this." Melissa admitted, still keeping her gun trained on the zombies. "Tina, Kurt, and Kitty, start packing up and quickly." Wiping away sweat from a cut on my cheek, I glanced at Brittany. She was working up a sweat of her own, groaning in pain. One hand was wrapped around her stomach and the other held Puck's grenade. How were we going to escape with her?

In a few minutes, everything we remembered was packed up and slung onto our shoulders. Once we were ready to go out the back door, I heard Marley ask, "Aren't you coming?" The rest of us looked back as we saw Brittany slide her gun and backpack over to us, hobbling to her feet.

"What the hell are you doing?" Santana asked incredulously.

Brittany smiled sadly. "I'm going to help you guys out." I saw the her passing grenade back and forth between her hands and then it clicked in my head: she was goig to blow herself up with the house. Before the words to stop her could come out of my mouth, all the windows crashed inwardly. The zombies had finally managed to break them, and they were tripping over each other as they tried to climb inside.

"Guys, get out! You have to do this!" Brittany yelled. I was shaking my head, wanting to talk her out of it. We helped Marley, and we could help her. But someone wrapped their arm around my midsection and began to drag me outside. I tried to fight the strong hands and heard screaming, though I wasn't sure if the sound was my own. My legs were scraping across the ground, twigs and rocks jutting into my skin, but I barely paid any attention to it. It seemed surreal, how slowly everything moved. For the tiniest second, even as the zombies began clawing at her, it seemed as if Brittany smiled.

And then everything turned into a giant yellow blur.  
•••••••••••••

Okay. So you know how I told you this was an original piece of fiction? Since I'm the only writer in my circle of friends, they all coerced me into writing this (I'm still writing and they're still giving me ideas). You can tell that I didn't take this seriously if you compare my style of writing here to Beast or Red With Envy. RWE is the first novel in a series I'm actually about to publish. Beast is my most popular story. So, anyway. I know the characters are AU, and it's probably only going to get worse since I simply put Glee names over my characters.


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